Wilmington NC Real Estate

I've had many calls as of late from prospective sellers/clients and friends wanting more information on what are their options when they are struggling and only weeks away from losing their home!

I have received several calls from frustrated homeowners that are either embarrassed or overwhelmed, angry or all of the above and it appears these emotions have one side effect on them, frozen-itis. Can you blame them?

I know the feeling all too well when things get lean and financially tight I want to crawl under a rug and forget the world is revolving. We all do!

Don't Give Up, There are Options!

There are options for ever situation, depending on where you are at with your finances, hardships and lean days!

Don't give up hope, find the strength to reach out to either some organization or professional, attorney or someone that can guide you in the right direction. The one thing that will hurt or hinder your situation is to hide under a rock as if nothing is wrong. I know this is saying a lot but somehow, someway you have to find the strength! I know this doesn't sound like the best advice and even might contradict your current feelings but reaching out to others you just might find that they understand!

Sometimes Patience Is A Virtue!

I've had clients call me with total frustrations with wanting to give up and not deal with loan modifications and throw their hands up in the air and want to walk away, I say, "hang in there." Just this past month a little gal with her first time home purchase (she bought high two years ago) and was struggling with her mortgage payment rising to an all time high and she was overwhelmed. She had had enough. She kept petitioning to her bank and supplying all that they demanded and it just seemed they weren't listening and she came to me to list her home and hang in the towel.

The day I was going to list her property, the bank that had previously turned her down had agreed to modifiy her loan, her payments almost dropped in half!! I'm so happy for her and appreciate her patience's! I know it wasn't easy for her, but I know there is a brightness around her now! There is HOPE!

Beware of the Bad Ones!

For those of you that are seeking alternatives, please keep in mind there is good and bad in everything! There are foreclosure scammers that want to take advantage of you and hurt you while you are vulnerable and down. Be sure to check all the credentials of any entity that approaches you to help you in her dire situation.

There are attorneys and professionals that are legit and will be able to provide any kind of proof if they are not scammers. Ask around, ask your friends, neighbors if they know of someone that they have worked with. You might find this alarming but I would bet at least every third house in your neighborhood is experiencing the same thing you are.

NID-Housing Counseling Agency

Here is a great article that a local lender, Ted Canto, a Senior Loan Officer with Academy Mortgage shared a great tip for those seeking some kind of help, best of all it's FREE.

There is a HUD Sponsored “Not for Profit” Agency that dedicates their time and efforts to assisting homeowners on their loan modification for “FREE”.

Who, what, where and how?

NID-Housing Counseling Agency (NID-HCA), program is designed to offer the myriad of housing related issues to our clients, nationwide. The function of the agency is to provide housing related counseling to all persons/entities with housing needs, FREE OF CHARGE. The agency is staffed by a network of fully training counselors/real estate professionals with extensive multi-choice knowledge of the real estate industry, in general and within their areas, specifically. The agency also has an extensive referral system for all of your real estate related needs.

They offer counseling to consumers, as well as non-profits, public agencies and faith-based organizations in each of the following areas:

• Default/Foreclosure (loss mitigation)
• Delinquency/Default Counseling
• Predatory Lending Counseling

Be sure to read the entire article by Ted and get the information on how to contact the NID-Housing Counseling Agency and learn more about the program, this might be the right option for you.

Yes, you read that right!  Unbelievable but true.  I am out in the field talking to homeowners every day.  Here is a TRUE story of California home owners who are fighting back and winning against these greedy giant corporate banks.  It's shocking to know that OUR taxpayer bailout money is being used to support such bad business practices by lenders like Citibank.  This homeowner's story has developed over the past year.

The Homeowners refinanced their house in the Spring of 2004, with a 6% ARM fixed for 2 years.  No problem, they would refinance into a better loan at the end of 2 years.  Unfortunately by that time, the market had changed and they couldn't refinance out of that ARM loan.

1. Due to the interest rate on the ARM loan increasing to approximately 11%, the homeowners' payments jumped from $1,800 to about $3,600 per month (not including taxes and insurance).  Note that these interest rates are being charged to the homeowner at a time when the federal rates were the LOWEST ever (4 to 5%).  Citi was currently servicing their loan, which had been transferred several times after their initial loan.

2. After getting behind in payments, the Homeowners first tried to negotiate with their lender Citi.  Citi demanded large payments to get caught up.  The Homeowner asked Citi if they could do a Loan Modification because they wanted the interest rate lowered.  Citi stated that they do not do Loan Modifications.  (Citi's computer called them automatically 2-3 times per day from Citi's collections dept.  The homeowners had to submit a "cease & desist" letter asking NOT to be called from Citi, in order to stop the harrassing phone calls.)

3. The Homeowner was unable to make the payments and contacted the HOPE government agency for help.  Citi ignored the HOPE program's request and refused to contact the Homeowner.  

4. The Homeowner's attorney then wrote 2 separate letters to Citi, with no answers or results from Citi.  The homeowners continued to contact Citi.  They got the "run-around" of being transferred from department to department, with no answers, no rep assigned to their case, and no one to return their phone calls.

5. The Homeowners heard that Citi was now offering Loan Modifications.  The Homeowners then submitted their financial form to Citi, requesting a Loan Modification.  The Homeowners contacted Citi every week with no answer or reply.  Finally, they got a letter denying their Loan Modification request.  Citi said it was denied because the file was incomplete because an additional paper was needed.  The Homeowners were never notified that additional paperwork was needed.  Citi said they could not contact the Homeowner because the Homeowner had asked Citi to "cease & desist" making collection calls (they were harassing the Homeowners by having the collection dept. computer calling them twice per day).  The Homeowners then pointed out that they had sent Citi a fax authorizing to be contacted on their cell phone regarding the Loan Modification.  The Homeowners asked Citi why they didn't simply send them a letter requesting the additional paperwork.  Then Citi stated that the Loan Modification application had been deleted from their system, and if the Homeowners wanted a Loan Mod, they would have to reapply and start the process all over again.  Citi stated that their Loan Modification process was a 4-6 week process.  The Homeowners pointed out that Citi had set the Foreclosure sale date only a few weeks away, and asked if Citi could postpone the sale date.  They said they could not.

6. The Homeowner then hired a Loan Modification company.  Unfortunately, after many attempts of dealing with Citi's senior management, the Loan Modification company was not able to obtain a loan modification because Citi refused to cooperate with them also.  First, Citi said that the Homeowner didn't have enough income to qualify for the Loan Modification program.  Then Citi said that the Homeowner had too much income to qualify!  (Fortunately, this company offers a money-back guarantee if they can't perform.)

7. Next the Homeowner hired a legal services program to file a fraud lawsuit against Citi.  After a couple of weeks, the program's lawyers could not get it filed in time because of their backlog of so many cases.   (This company called the Homeowners and told them the attorneys weren't going to be able to get their lawsuit filed before the foreclosure date.  And yes, they sent the Homeowners' money back to them the next day).  They received a Notice of Trustee's Sale (Foreclosure sale) from Citi.  The sale date was set for January 30th.

8. The Homeowners next hired Home Defense Group to file a lawsuit against Citi.  With less than 2 weeks before the Foreclosure sale date, Home Defense Group filed a very strong lawsuit against Citi.  Reading from a court-certified copy, the first page says:

COMPLAINT FOR:

1. DECLARATORY RELIEF
2. VOID, CANCEL, AND SET ASIDE:
    (a) NOTICE OF TRUSTEE'S SALE UNDER DEED OF TRUST;
    (b) NOTICE OF DEFAULT AND ELECTION TO SELL UNDER DEED OF TRUST
3. CANCELLATION OF INSTRUMENTS
4. QUIET TITLE TO REAL PROPERTY
5. ACCOUNTING
6. INJUNCTIVE RELIEF
   (a) Temporary Restraining Order
   (b) Preliminary Injunction
7. DAMAGES:
   (a) General
   (b) Compensatory
   (c) Bad Faith Foreclosure
   (d) Violation of Statute(s)

9. After receiving this lawsuit, Citi postponed the Notice of Trustee's Sale (Foreclosure sale).  Citi did not notify the Homeowners or the law firm.  This information was discovered when searching the foreclosure public records.  The Sale date postponement was postponed from January 30th to March 2nd.

10. Meanwhile, Home Defense Group will continue to work on behalf of this Homeowner until the case can be successfully concluded.

PLEASE NOTE that there is NO guarantee that ANY particular program or lawsuit will be successful on your behalf.  I have heard a rumor that some lawyers, although they had filed valid cases, were not having the success they sought.  I heard it was because some corrupt judges were siding with the huge corporate lenders, who are paying millions of dollars to try to get these lawsuits thrown out.  These huge corporate lenders are afraid that losing a fraud lawsuit will set a precedent, opening the floodgates to thousands of other Homeowners who will sue on the same grounds, and the lenders will do everything possible to stop these type of lawsuits. 

Although I hope and pray that these cases get heard fairly on behalf of homeowners, I can't deny that corruption, favoritism, and unfairness exist in every society.  Our American justice system is not perfect, and life is not always fair.  However, I feel that homeowners have a GOOD SHOT at getting some POWER back in their hands with these experienced attorneys who are willing to put their careers on the line to FIGHT back for American citizens.  God bless them!!!

If you question the legitimacy of this tactic, consider this:  Your lender may have sold your promissory Note and they may not own your Note -- which may mean that they do NOT have the right to foreclose, and maybe even don't have the right to collect your mortgage payment.  Smart attorneys are working with home owners to make the lender PRODUCE a valid note.  Here's Lou Dobbs from CNN.

According to Ohio congresswoman Marcy Kaptur as interviewed on LouDobbs.com on CNN.com, if your lender tries to foreclose on you, hire an attorney and fight back!  Stay in your house, do NOT move out.

In this CNN clip called "Fight Foreclosures: Be a Squatter!", check out the video here:

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2009/01/30/griffin.mortgage.squatting.cnn

Please reference my previous blog, "Bank Foreclosing?  Don't Move Out, Stay in your Home" at http://activerain.com/blogsview/911789/Bank-Foreclosing-Dont-Move-Out-Stay-in-your-Home

Can Home Defense Group's program work for you or your homeowners?  Contact us today to find out if your loan qualifies and you can put their powerful program to work for you.

Join my new AR group and post your blog at http://activerain.com/groups/virtualoffice

Regina P. Brown
Broker, Realtor®, e-Pro
Author of eBook "Stop Foreclosure Fast: Solutions to Save your House"

Text copyright © 2009 R.P. Brown, All Rights Reserved

Mortgage Interest Rates - They are becoming a big topic of conversation in recent weeks. About a month ago, there were many reports stating that rates will come down to 4.5%.  And depending on how you look at it, we are just about there.

This is all based on a FHA mortgage ..... (Conventional rates are about 1/2 pt worse and even more so, depending on your credit scores)

4.50% would cost any where from 1 3/4 pts to 2 3/4 pts, depending on your loan amount and the state that you live in.

5.00% would cost any where from zero points to 1 pt, again, depending on your loan amount and the state that you live in.

 

So what is the deal?  Yes, rates are very low. The MBS's (mortgage backed securities) are being bought by government funds, which have driven the rates lower. But in my honest opinion, I don't see them staying low for any time long. Don't get use to this.

 

 

 

So here is the problem to where I see things. Again, the MBS's are being bought and in many cases, usually become stronger and more attractive, and this helps lower rates. The 4.5% coupon and the 5.0% coupon is very cheap right now, which you would think rates would be lower. Coupled with the fact that the stock market has been losing daily, except for a slight gain today. Also the 10 year yield rose slightly today, but for the week, has been lower than in previous weeks.

What does this mean?  Typically when what was mentioned above happens, rates usually come down. But the problem with this is that they are the lowest in many years. And I don't see them staying low for any length of time. If I had to put a time frame on it, possibly staying low for 1 1/2 weeks, or maybe the possibility of a whole month. But that would be pushing it. What would be my reasons for rates to increase?

Jeff's reasons....  one of the basics is that we just can't sustain low rates for the long term. This will do more harm than good. Sure, it's helped refinances to increase in recent weeks. But the purchase market has slightly increased. More and more people seem to be sitting on the fence, waiting for rates to lower.  PEOPLE... listen up.... if you had plans to buy, buy now, don't wait.

 

 

 

Conclusion :  As mentioned, we can't sustain low rates. Consumer spending is slowing, yields will rise, and there is speculation that President - Elect Barack Obama will increase borrowing to record highs to pay for his economic rescue package. With all of that, you would have the risk of inflation rising. Low mortgage rates do not always jump start the economy.  If people save a $100 here or there, it doesn't get replaced into our economy in areas that are most critical.  Lowering your mortgage payment on your new home, should not mean that you buy more or bigger. It should allow you to save more, hence one of the reasons why we are in this mess. This is not a fluff post or to make you happy post. It's reality and we need to see past the low rates. This post should have read, rates possibly going up, but I wanted to get your attention.

 

If you have been thinking about refinancing, do it now. If it makes sense 3 weeks ago, do it now. If you are waiting for lower rates, I won't feel for you when rates do go up, when they increase. Don't buy because rates are down, buy because you can afford it and think of lower rates as a bonus... or that you won the lottery.

PS.... and if you want bragging rights amongst your neighbors, co-workers, and family... put that behind you and save money, don't lose money. Besides, every borrower is different, because of credit score & LTV (loan to value), so one rate will be different than the other. That is just a fact.  Don't be left behind because you wanted to brag the loudest, be a winner in your own world.

 

 

For two other good posts that give some other insights to what I didn't talk about, please read these :

• Market Direction with common sense explanation  by : Larry Bettag

• Mortgage Rates Report - January 14th, 2009  by : Brian Brady

• The Rate/waiting game  by : Jason Sardi

 

 

 

- FHA Loans - USDA Loans - Conventional Loans - VA Loans - Mortgages -

Experience & Knowledge at its BEST !!!

 

 

________________________________________________________________________________________

For more information on FHA loans, please go to this link. The FHA Expert

For more information about the 2008-2009 Tax Credit for First Time Homebuyers : 2008 Tax Credit

For important mortgage insight to watch for, please read : Consumers need to be aware of these Red Flags !!!!!

Copyright © 2009 by Jeff Belonger

It's nine days until Christmas and you still haven't found the perfect gift for those special people on your list.  What will you do?

Are you kidding me?  What in the world have you been doing all year?  Certainly not selling houses -- the Media said so!.  You knew Christmas was coming this time last year! Uggghh...

I digress...

Here are some cool, SIMPLE, inexpensive gift ideas that you can whip up fairly quickly.  Yes, they are homemade, but they won't have to look homemade, if you put a little thought into 'em--

1.  Give the gift of THEM THEM.  You're a blogging maniac and I know you have loads of GREAT photos just waiting to be released from your MY PICTURES purgatory.  Release 'em already!  This is one of my favs.  I did this for my niece one year and she's raved about it ever since.  I gathered a couple pix of her 2 kids (ones she had no idea I'd taken!), uploaded them to Walmart.com's photo page, then picked them up at the store an hour later.  I didn't even have to buy frames since I buy frames like some women buy shoes (and always for a song!) so it was easy enough to pop some into frames, wrap 'em and call 'em a gift.

 

2.  Give the gift of YOU YOU.  Write 'em a letter.  Hand write your Dad (who has everything already, right?) a letter from the heart.  Tell him what he means to you, tell him about how you've come to appreciate those "mean" things he did to you in childhood (now that you are an adult w/your own lovely tykes).  Tell him you remember when he first took you to the zoo, or how he always made you pancakes on the weekends.  Tell him how much you appreciate the time he spends w/his grandkids now.  The sky's the limit on this one.  However, word to the wise, don't write a cotton' pickin' novelette...short and sweet, that's the ticket! And put it on some nice paper, too! Maybe frame it, I like frames...

 

3.  Give the gift of Food.  Yes, food! Everyone loves food. Just don't do the fruitcake thing. Decadent Chocolate Chip Cookies (yeah, that's all in CAPS, 'cause it's important!) in a gorgeous container, or your signature dish, whatever it may be, is always appreciated.  There are several variations on this one, too.  You could layer the ingredients for the cookies in a mason jar or some other decorative see-thru container (layer of sugar, topped w/layer of chips, layer of flour...) and top w/a bow. And you could should include the recipe (in a frame?..).

4.  Give the gift of Notoriety.  Write a blog about 'em.  You're a blogging maniac, remember? This is similar in concept to #2 but now you're taking it to a ho nuvah level.

These are just the tip of the iceberg.  Your imagination is the limit.  Just keep in mind that you don't have to spend hours in the mall or all of your money (that the Media says you don't have) to give a really great, inexpensive, yet unique gift.  All you need to do is stretch your creative wings and give the gift of your thoughtfulness.  People like gifts like that. That eat that stuff up (see #3).

Happy Holidays to you and yours!

 

Look at these amazing faces.  The hope and will is there.  But, we need to empower these special girls with the gift of education!

For any of you who are lucky enough to know Rocky Turner, you know her passion and goals are limitless when it comes to helping her girls at St Monica's Orphanage in Kenya.  She is traveling there again in January expecting to be able to give the schools enough money for all 10 girls' school and living expenses.

Today is a special day and we need YOUR help!  Please take a minute to go to:

http://www.mothersfightingforothers.com/category/blog/. 

Change the Lives of 10 Girls Today - December 10, 2008

Read Rocky's story, watch her video and click on the link to donate.  Whether it is $5 or $100, you will be one of our heroes!

As one of the board members of Mothers Fighting For Others I can't thank you enough.